After the events of Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite, former Ring of Honor Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata will take on Lee Moriarty as part of this Saturday’s edition of AEW Collision.
In a trios match Wednesday, Moriarty got the pin on Shibata to help put this into motion. This will be a rematch from their May 2023 bout on AEW Rampage for the Pure title that saw Shibata gain the win.
Shibata is 1-2 in AEW singles action this year while Moriarty is 0-3.
Here’s the updated card for this Saturday’s event from Highland Heights, KY, that will also feature a live Battle of the Belts X special directly after it:
Collision:
AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm vs. AZM in a title eliminator match
The Ring of Honor Women’s Championship will be on the line when Athena defends against Diamante on Thursday’s ROH on HonorClub.
Athena defeated Christina Marie in a Proving Ground match last week before cutting a promo backstage where she told Lexy Nair that she wants the women in the ROH locker room to step up because she’s getting bored.
On a two-match winning streak, Diamante last appeared on ROH TV in June when she beat Vanessa Kraven.
The ROH Pure Title will also be on the line this week as Katsuyori Shibata will put his belt on the line against Josh Woods in a Pure Rules match in a previously announced match. Woods defeated Eli Isom last week while Shibata is coming off a successful title defense against Daniel Garcia at Death Before Dishonor.
Thursday will also see two ROH TV Title Eliminator Tournament matches. The first will be between Gravity and Tony Nese. Gravity looks to get back on the winning side of things after he lost to ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe Saturday on AEW Collision.
The second will feature Christopher Daniels and Shane Taylor squaring off. Taylor earned his spot in the semifinal by beating Serpentico last week while Daniels got there by defeating JD Drake.
Leyla Hirsch will also be in action.
Here’s the current card for Thursday’s ROH TV on HonorClub:
ROH Women’s Champion Athena defends against Diamante
ROH Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata defends against Josh Woods
Gravity vs. Tony Nese in an ROH TV Title Eliminator Tournament match
Shane Taylor vs. Christopher Daniels in an ROH TV Title Eliminator Tournament match
Dalton Castle vs. Zack Clayton
Komander & El Hijo Del Vikingo vs. The WorkHorsemen (JD Drake & Anthony Henry)
The Gates of Agony (Toa Liona & Bishop Kaun) vs. The Boys (Brent & Brandon)
A Pure Championship match is set for the Thursday, August 3 episode of Ring of Honor TV.
As announced during this week’s show, Katsuyori Shibata will defend the ROH Pure title against Josh Woods on next week’s episode.
Woods defeated Eli Isom in a Pure Rules match on this week’s episode in a bout where Shibata served as one of the judges. After the contest, “Smart” Mark Sterling issued a challenge to Shibata on Woods’ behalf, and the Champion accepted. The match was announced for next week’s show.
Shibata defeated Wheeler Yuta to win the Pure title at Supercard of Honor on March 31 of this year and has since defended the title against Christopher Daniels, Alex Coughlin, Lee Moriarty, and Daniel Garcia.
After defeating Garcia at Death Before Dishonor last Friday, Shibata spoke of his desire to set the record for longest Pure title reign. Shibata’s reign currently stands at 119 days, well short of Nigel McGuinness’s record 350-day reign in 2005 and 2006.
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TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Apollo Crews vs. John Morrison and Veer vs. Jaxson Ryker were taped last night for this week’s Main Event.
A SmackDown replay that aired on Saturday night following the Houston vs. Boston MLB game scored 632,000 viewers, with a 0.16 in 18-49.
Panini announced that they have become the exclusive trading card partner of WWE, ending WWE’s long relationship with Topps.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Shawn Michaels talked about taking the reigns from Triple H in running NXT following Triple H’s recent heart issue. “Trying to step in and fill his role is impossible to do,” Michaels said. “Everybody here misses him unbelievably, especially me. But I always go back to this—everything in real life takes precedence over everything else. This was a situation where my best friend needed my help and needed me to step in, so I look at this as an opportunity, in a small way, to thank him for everything he did for me earlier in my career. Taking over the responsibilities here is a drop in the bucket compared to what he did for me all those years back. I’m honored to at least have the opportunity to pay him back a little bit and be there for him. That’s what this whole company does—this whole relaunch has been everyone pulling together, and I’m energized and inspired to keep this NXT territory going strong during his absence.”
Xavier Woods spoke to the New York Post on becoming King of the Ring. “It means everything,” he said. “Because as you stated, this was a chance to break out and show everybody in the company that I have worked in whatever capacity that I can be put in. I’m not just a tag team wrestler. I very much am a tag team wrestler, but I very much believe that singles competitors have a harder time transitioning into tag team wrestlers because tag team wrestling is so complicated and so intricate and there are so many more bodies. I feel like tag team wrestlers have a much better chance at becoming incredible single performers because they are used to so many more bodies and so many more things coming at you. You got to keep your head on a swivel at all time. You don’t know if you’re going to get hit from the left or the right. So for me to be able to translate my tag team success into singles success into become royalty is for me, in my career, literally the best case scenario.”
Rey Mysterio talked to TV Insider about wanting to win the Raw Tag Team titles with his son Dominik.
Indi Hartwell talked to Sportskeeda ahead of her tag team title match at Halloween Havoc tonight.
This week’s Road to AEW Dynamite, which focuses on CM Punk vs. Bobby Fish, Sammy Guevara vs. Ethan Page, and Jon Moxley vs. Preston Vance.
The season finale of Rhodes to the Top on Saturday scored 303,000 viewers, with a 0.11 in 18-49, placing 26th for the night on cable. This is down from last week’s 340,000.
The Boston Globe has a profile on AEW Dynamite ahead of Wednesday’s show in Boston.
CM Punk turns 43 today. Wheeler Yuta is also celebrating a birthday today.
Other Wrestling
PWInsider reports that Alberto Del Rio’s trial has been moved again, this time to December 13.
The Record reported that ROH’s parent company Sinclair Broadcasting suffered outages as a result of a ransomware attack.
Minoru Suzuki wrote on Instagram that this excursion to the United States has ended and is heading back to Japan.
Katsuyori Shibata talked to Tokyo Sports about his surprise return and exhibition match at the G1 Climax 31 finals. “I wanted to do it at the right time,” he said. “It was troublesome to ask about my condition, so I said, ‘Seeing is believing.’ I just expressed that it is [time]. Also, since it is such an era of corona, I wish I could see something like hope. [Zack Sabre Jr. was] the right person. He’s always said that he can maximize [his time]. I wonder if there will be a [future] battle with Zack. On the contrary, other than Zack, I didn’t think about it.”
Warrior Wrestling announced that Will Ospreay will be part of their December 12 event.
Adam Scherr, the former Braun Strowman, announced a December 4 date for a GLCW Blizzard Brawl event appearance. He said this would probably be his only appearance for the rest of the year.
Warner Bros. has greenlit a sequel to last week’s top box office film Dune, which stars Batista. It was given a theatrical release window of October 2023.
Matt Tremont has released a short video hyping his return to deathmatch wrestling, facing Atsushi Onita on October 31.
Taylor Rotunda, the former Bo Dallas, will appear at WrestleCade Revenge from November 26 through the 28th.
In a big surprise, KENTA appeared at NJPW’s Dominion event this morning and announced his intentions to enter the G1 Climax.
It was Katsuyori Shibata who introduced KENTA, who came out wearing Shibata’s Takeover shirt. KENTA kept it short, saying that he will be in the tournament, which kicks off next month in Dallas, Texas.
KENTA has not been seen since February 22, when he was granted his release from the WWE. He had been on 205 Live prior to his departure and had competed for the Cruiserweight title at the Royal Rumble, losing in a fatal four way match.
KENTA has never regularly wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling. He graduated from All Japan Pro Wrestling’s dojo in 2000 and jumped to NOAH along with the majority of the roster later that year. He wrestled in NOAH for 14 years before signing with the WWE in 2014.
His run in NXT was plagued with injuries that kept him in developmental for years. He was called up to 205 Live in 2017 and while he had a few opportunities at the Cruiserweight title, he never held it.
Night two of the G1 is upon us. We pick up where we left off at Korakuen Hall as we go through the prelims, then the start of B Block action:
Tencozy & Manabu Nakanishi defeated David Finlay, Captain New Japan, & Juice Robinson when Satoshi Kojima pinned Captain New Japan after a lariat. Very short, even for a tag match. In an interesting note, they didn’t mute Kojima’s or Tenzan’s music, which is weird as they were muted at the start of the tour.
Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, & Naomichi Marufuji defeated Tama Tonga, Yujiro Takahashi, and Bad Luck Fale after Marufuji pinned Takahashi with the shiranui.
KUSHIDA, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Togi Makabe, Tiger Mask, Jushin Liger when KUSHIDA pinned Tiger Mask with a bridge. Tiger Mask and KUSHIDA had good chemistry towards the end. Makabe and Tanahashi had a staredown.
SANADA & BUSHI defeated Kazuchika Okada & Gedo when BUSHI pinned Gedo after the codebreaker.
Onto the G1 matches themselves:
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Toru Yano
Yano is most interesting in these tournaments as he usually gets some quick wins out of nowhere.
He attempted a few of them in here, but it didn’t work. He tried to use the ref, but Nakajima persevered and gave him a drop toe hold into the post, then pinned him with a penalty kick and brainbuster. Not much of a match.
Kenny Omega vs. YOSHI-HASHI
This started off with a very good pace. This is one of YOSHI-HASHI’s first singles matches in a while and he looked great. He’s very over as an underdog in these kind of matches.
Omega cut him off and wrapped him around the mats on the floor, then followed that with a double footstomp. YOSHI-HASHI made a comeback, but got derailed with the knees to the back following a failed senton attempt.
Omega struck him with the knees and went for the One Winged Angel, but YOSHI-HASHI countered into a DDT. Omega kicked out of the senton and managed to get to the ropes after a submission attempt.
Omega made another comeback, but YOSHI-HASHI came back with a knee strike to the back of the head. But that still didn’t do it. Finally, YOSHI-HASHI hit a modified Michinoku driver and pinned Omega in a big upset. Great match with tons of fantastic near falls towards the end.
Michael Elgin vs. EVIL
About as stiff as you’d expect. A lot of back and forth stiff shots. EVIL’s excelling in this type of match. Elgin hit a frog splash that the announcers called the Big Mike Fly Flow, which is a pretty nice name.
EVIL hit a crazy half nelson suplex then soon followed that with the STO for the surprise clean win. Well, there’s going to be a lot surprise wins in the first few shows. Good, stiff match.
Tetsuya Naito vs. Yuji Nagata
Naito went to work on Nagata’s leg, taking him to the outside, wrapping a post around the leg, and dropkicked it. Nagata kept giving it to Naito, but he remained focused, staying on the leg, and wrapped Nagata’s legs into an ankle lock.
Nagata came back and drilled him with a backdrop driver for a cool near fall. Naito tried to mount a comeback, but Nagata drilled him with a kick to the temple then bashed him with a bridging back suplex for the win.
Nothing totally wrong with this, as it built well and overall was a pretty good match, but it felt like it was missing something until the last few minutes.
Tomoaki Honma vs. Katsuyori Shibata
This was another match where the action was good, but something was missing. I think there’s an element to Honma that’s missing as well as the underdog story from last year isn’t here this year, and as a result he just comes off as just a guy.
They worked hard and there were some stiff spots, but it wasn’t out of this world or anything. The finish was cool as Honma hit a sitout piledriver, then a reverse sitout piledriver (which is the best I can explain it), then hit the Kokeshi from the top rope for for the win.
Honma cut a promo after the match, saying he’s lucky, and that will take him to the finals.
Overall, a pretty fun show from top to bottom. Most of the tags were fine and most of the G1 matches were good, one reaching great. Check out Omega vs. YOSHI-HASHI for sure.
